Family of homeless man worried he may be in danger

By Lauren Baheri

Published: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 08:18 AM.

To add more concern to the case, a couple of years back, Mize suffered a head injury. He was found lying on the railroad tracks bleeding from his head. He was unconscious in the hospital for several days, Wright said.

Since then, he’s been showing signs of short-term memory loss, Wright said. Wright worries Mize may have lost his wallet and does not remember their phone numbers to call home, or worse.

“He could be staying here under a bridge, but we would never know it unless we just stumbled upon him,” Weaver said.

In the cases of missing people who are reported to be homeless, Weaver said they use all their resources to find them, including checking with local ministries, hospitals and jails. Unfortunately, however, most don’t want to be found, he said.

Lisa Wright hasn’t heard from her brother, Richard Ervin Mize, in more than a month. Mize’s son hasn’t heard from him for that long either, so he filed a missing person’s report June 2. The family worries because Mize is homeless that he may never be found.

Mize, 53, chose to be homeless, said his sister Lisa Wright said.

“He chooses to be homeless. He’s been like this for years,” Wright said.

Though Mize often lived on the streets, he still kept in touch with his family, Wright said. He’d wander off, but he’d always call his son or her, she said. That’s what worries the family.

“It’s not like him not to call home,” Wright said. “It’s got us all shook up and nervous.”

According to Wright, Mize had been staying with his son in Gastonia until they got into an argument about Mize’s drinking. When Mize left and didn’t call his son again, Wright thought it might just have been because he was angry. But, when weeks went by and they heard nothing, they decided to take action.

Mize has been known to frequent south and west Gastonia, but also has friends in South Carolina, Wright said.

To add more concern to the case, a couple of years back, Mize suffered a head injury. He was found lying on the railroad tracks bleeding from his head. He was unconscious in the hospital for several days, Wright said.

Since then, he’s been showing signs of short-term memory loss, Wright said. Wright worries Mize may have lost his wallet and does not remember their phone numbers to call home, or worse.

“He could be staying here under a bridge, but we would never know it unless we just stumbled upon him,” Weaver said.

In the cases of missing people who are reported to be homeless, Weaver said they use all their resources to find them, including checking with local ministries, hospitals and jails. Unfortunately, however, most don’t want to be found, he said.

Still, the police take every case as serious as the next.

“We still take them all seriously and we still research all the leads that we can and check all the resources that we have and follow any lead that we’re given,” Weaver said.

Mize is described as being 5 feet 6 inches tall, 150 pounds, has blue eyes, brown hair and a gray beard and mustache.

Anyone with information to help solve this missing person's case is asked to call Gastonia Police at 704-866-6702 or Crime Stoppers at 704-861-8000. Crime Stoppers pays up to $1,000 for information that leads to a case being solved.

You can reach reporter Lauren Baheri at 704-869-1842 or Twitter.com/lbaheri.